“Speak not unless you can improve the silence.”
I had a little “uh oh” moment when I heard those words. “Uh oh” because so much of what I say is filler. “Uh oh” because, as a writer, the act of writing and struggling and publishing is part of the gig, part of what makes me better, even as I stumble through the process of writing some stuff that doesn’t land. “Uh oh” because that advice is so good. How do I rise to that level?
So I sit, the desire to speak and write held in one hand, “speak not unless you can improve the silence” held in the other, and I sit, looking back and forth between my hands, eyes blinking in befuddlement.